Erica

Prev Next

I did the Sally picture and posted it on my MySpace page. So when I went into the Clubhouse that same night Erica said she wanted one too. So the next day, when I woke up, I did this. I tried something new with the hair kind of. I have over-lapping layers of hair. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be and I like the effect. I'm surprised I did all this in like five hours. I'm getting better at this.

Sally

Prev Next

Sally was hassling me for a while to do a picture of her. I had trouble finding a picture I liked. I found one eventually and made this. She now owes me a song by Joss Stone.

Alex on iPhone

Prev Next

So I have a cell phone now. I don't have an iPhone. My brother just got one though. He told me that the phone could put a personalized background on every time I call and that I should make one for when I call. This is what I made. I did it pretty quickly. If you're curious I have a Motorola W385. Nothing impressive, but exactly what I'm looking for.

Amy

Prev Next

Amy was bugging me for a few weeks to do a picture of her. I started working with a different photo, but I just wasn't feeling it. Her face just looked wooden, if that means anything. I eventually switched to a better picture. I think I might be getting sick of this style. I've been dabbling in charactures a bit. I think I might try some of that soon.

Jenna and Stars

Prev Next

So I give Katie her picture and she posts it on her MySpace. Within a few hours (Yes, I have nothing better to do over spring break then obsessively check comments on my things), Jenna commented on how she like the picture and added that she wanted one. It probably was an off hand remark and I'm sure she didn't think much would come of it. If that is the case she obviously doesn't know me well enough. I take small comments as personal challenges. I didn't waste much time in getting to business.

I didn't know exactly what she wanted, so I did exactly the same thing as last time. Now it seems like part of a series. And that tends to be a bad thing for me. I never seem to like the rest as much as the original one made. In fact, I tend to hate all my following creations. To be honest, I do like the one of Katie better. But I'm actually surprised that I made a second that I like and am not sorely disappointed with. Of course, that probably means there will be a third person wanting one too.

I altered a few things from the original photo. Most notably, what she is wearing. She was wearing a lot of beads and the top she had on covered way more skin. I wanted to see how well I could pull it off and I think I did.

Katie and Bubbles

Prev Next

Katie sent me and e-mail a few weeks ago and she asked if I could do a newer version of her. She liked what I had done recently and was starting to feel left out and outdated. I gladly agreed to do another one. I found a fun picture of her on her page and got to work. I didn't put any gradients in her hair, but I did use a lot of different colored layers. I think it works pretty well and keeps it from looking cluttered.

During the entire project, I kept thinking about the background. I couldn't think of anything good. I really wanted to do something abstract as I tend to avoid that a lot. I eventually decided on a pattern wallpaper with a some type of thing on the side. Hell, bubbles are cute.

Allie

Prev Next

I was asking Allie, a friend who works at the Clubhouse, which version she liked best of the the previous illustration of Riann. She liked one of the color versions. She asked when I was making one of her. I told her I would when I had some pictures of her to choose from. She befriend me on MySpace the next day. I went with a similar style as the one I did for Riann, but only did a color version with a black background. She liked it.

Rachel

Prev Next

This is another illustration I made for someone off Craigslist. She wanted an avatar for her Oregon Media Network page. It's like a MySpace for people in film in Oregon. She wanted it pretty minimal but with color. I made white fuzz in the background to give it some media. She approved.

New Tara Avatar

Prev Next

Tara was paging through some of my work and asked if I could make her a new avatar for her Facebook page. She liked what I did in the Minimal Riann picture and she wanted it something like that. I gave her six different options to choose from. She liked two of them the most. I loved this one the most which was one of the two. The odd thing is, she didn't even want me to use the original photo that I made this one off of. It couldn't have come out better.

Rod

Prev Next

I got bored on Monday, when school was canceled, so I put up an ad on Craigslist to see if anyone wanted an illustration of themselves or someone else. This is the guy who responded first. His name is Rod, obviously. He loved it, and as he told me, so does everyone he showed it to at work. It killed 2 or 3 hours. I think it's pretty good for the size of image I was given to work with.

Clay

Prev Next

Clay saw the present I gave Tara for Xmas and so Tara showed him more. He wanted an illustration of himself. I made this. He wanted me to include the tie. So this isn't the final product. I added the suit and tie the next day. I believe his response was something like, "Oh, my god!" Tara was a very good middle-woman.

Pilar

Prev Next

Pilar asked for an illustration of herself on someone else's MySpace. I was looking for the right picture and waiting to feel freely creative. I was a bit busy with Xmas presents at the time. I did this one while I was in Eau Claire for winter break. I used Illustrator 8.0, so it was a bit annoying when certain features weren't available. I made due. She said she didn't think she could look so good.

Tara's Tree

Prev Next

This is the present I made for Tara for Xmas '07. It's all equilateral triangles. I started out making really small triangles, but soon realized it didn't look right, plus it was too time-consuming. Katherine suggested the swing idea when I was still thinking of the idea. It was the perfect addition. There is somewhere around 8300 trinagles in it. The final product was a 30x20 print.

Present Doodle

Prev Next

This is a doodle I did by HAND! It was some ideas I had for Tara's Xmas present that I didn't go with. The first one seemed too mechanical. I was also basing it off a more musical theme, that I realized I hated. The second one was just so depressing it was hard to give it any glimmer of hope.

Dot Riann

Prev Next

This was my Xmas '07 present to Riann. She liked my dot picture of Natalie Portman hanging in my apartment. This is the only post where none of the work was done in Illustrator. I printed it and framed it. She loved it.

Vanessa's Eyes

Prev Next

I met this person on Craigslist. They wanted me to see what I could do with a picture of their eyes. It was a very small low quality image. I wanted the focus to be the irises. I did everything in black and white but the those. This is made with about 13 layers just for the irises. There are a maybe somewhere around 10,000+ little sine(or cosine) waves to give it that fibery look. My brother says that using transparencies in Illustrator is cheating, but in a case like this I think it's justified. Vanessa was impressed.

Chuck

Prev Next

Shelley asked me to do more male subjects, because I tend to do mostly women. Almost all of my friends are female, except Chuck. So I looked for a good picture I had of him. I didn't have many. I did have this one that was pretty dark and I lightened it. It worked well. It was an interesting challenge to do the lips. As I have said, male lips need to be subtle. I really love the glasses, as always. This is also one of my favorites.

Alison on a Boat

Prev Next

Alison said she wanted me to do this picture for her so that she could give it to her mom. The original picture was very dark, so I had to use Photoshop and made a bright version and an even brighter version to work from. It was the first time I had used an image in 3 different levels to get the right details for the whole picture. Alison always turns out to be a great subject.

Hey, the gradient mesh came back too (the sky). I also used some brushes for the water and land detail.

Emily on the Beach

Prev Next

Emily had been poking me for a while to do a better illustration of her. Eventually I had us go through some pictures of her so that I could. This was a good one. I really used the highlights this time. I never heard any complaints on this one. Nor should I. I think it's one of my best. I adjusted the background so that it would fit in a square.

David in Italy

Prev Next

At least I think it's Italy. Katie wanted me to do one of David. Or maybe David wanted me to to do one of him and Katie asked. This is the first time I used highlights without a mesh. I toned them down so that any oddness wasn't apparent. I spent a lot of time on the background as well. I spent more time on this background then on the one of Tara Bowling.